Cannabis Beverages at Thanksgiving 2023

How about some cannabis beverages at your Thanksgiving gatherings this year? Maybe your crazy uncle won't get belligerent, because that's just not what happens when you drink a cannabis beverage.

Before you declare your Thanksgiving shopping done, go pick up some cannabis beverages at the dispensary (or gas station, grocery store or liquor store if you're living in a state that realizes this is where social beverage consumption is headed).

Give your guests a new beverage to be thankful for this holiday season.

#normalizethanksgivingweed

Side note - This is also a great way to get high without annoying your entire family with the smoke cloud you bring into the house from your pre and post walks.

Hemp Derived Beverage Availability

Regarding cannabis beverages, I would prefer to see regulators focus on regulating the PRODUCTS to ensure the consumers that desire them have SAFE access to them. Consumers have demonstrated demand for these products. Banning them is not the move.

1. Low dose hemp derived THC beverages everywhere you can buy beer (groceries, gas stations, restaurants, etc.) It’s important to maintain strict policies surrounding packaging and branding to ensure that no products are attractive to children. E.g. NO gummies in this channel obviously.

2. Higher dose, heavily concentrated beverages in the dispensary channel. Liquor and wine stores as the comparison here.

3. Eventually there should be a third channel of even higher doses and targeted at specific outcomes that will be available through the pharmacies.

I'm still forming my opinion so happy to be challenged on any points here.
The category “edibles” altogether needs to be broken up into two categories, food and beverage. Cannabis beverages will deserve their own category shortly. It’s already getting its own day.

This Sunday is 820, NATIONAL DRINK CANNABIS DAY, enjoy a cannabis beverage.

Celebration at a Cannabis Control Board Meeting in NY

Celebration at the Cannabis Control Board meeting today was so great to see.

"New York Needs You To Run Successful Cannabis Businesses"
- Chris Alexander

Plenty of work to do but it's safe to say the market is working out the kinks and heating up.

1. Expansion of CAURD retail licenses bringing the total to 463 licenses.
2. Grower Showcase is happening! This has been quite the 3 month rollercoaster but it's back on. Details needing to be ironed out, however this is a very exciting development.
3. Universal application process to be presented in September
4. Research and medical Cannabis Program advancements
5. Addressing and adjustments to the Cannabinoid Hemp Regulations.

Do You Have Your Eye on the 2023 Farm Bill? You Should.

SAFE banking is getting all of the federal reform headlines but the 2023 Farm Bill presents an equally impactful opportunity for the 50 state markets in the US.

The leading hemp organizations, including the Hemp Industries Association, National Industrial Hemp Council of America and U.S. Hemp Roundtable, created a “priority policy document” that outlines the most important items to consider for enactment in the 2023 Farm Bill. Since this document was released, 30+ state, regional and national nonprofit organizations have signed on in support. The document lists nine priority policies:

1. Regulate CBD Now
2. Hemp As a Specialty Crop
3. Promote Hemp Research at HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Hispanic Serving Institutions
4. Bolster The USDA Hemp Program
5. Repeal The Hemp Felon Ban
6. Remove the Requirement for DEA Registration of Hemp Testing Labs
7. Permit Hemp Grain for Animal Feed
8. Addressing THC Levels for Hemp
9. Ease Regulatory Burdens on Hemp Farmers

I was pleased to see this coordinated effort and it made we wonder two questions:

1. Can we do this at the national level on the high THC cannabis side of advocacy and lobbying?
2. Do we really need 30-40+ separate organizations at various geographic levels? Or could many of these regional, state and local organizations be committees, sub-committees, chapters, etc. so we could act in coordination more often?